Scalar Top Quark Studies with Various Visible Energies

The precision determination of scalar top quark properties will play an important role at a future International Linear Collider (ILC). Recent and ongoing studies are discussed for different experimental topologies in the detector. First results are presented for small mass differences between the scalar top and neutralino masses. This corresponds to a small expected visible energy in the detector. An ILC will be a unique accelerator to explore this scenario. In addition to finding the existence of light stop quarks, the precise measurement of their properties is crucial for testing their impact on the dark matter relic abundance and the mechanism of electroweak baryogenesis. Significant sensitivity for mass differences down to 5 GeV are obtained. The simulation is based on a fast and realistic detector simulation. A vertex detector concept of the Linear Collider Flavor Identification (LCFI)collaboration, which studies pixel detectors for heavy quark flavour identification, is implemented in the simulations for c-quark tagging. The study extends simulations for large mass differences (large visible energy) for which aspects of different detector simulations, the vertex detector design, and different methods for the determination of the scalar top mass are discussed. Based on the detailed simulations we study the uncertainties for the dark matter density predictions and their estimated uncertainties from various sources. In the region of parameters where stop-neutralino co-annihilation leads to a value of the relic density consistent with experimental results, as precisely determined by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), the stop-neutralino mass difference is small and the ILC will be able to explore this region efficiently.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, presented at SUSY'0

Maternal Country of Birth and Exclusive Breastfeeding During the First In-Hospital Day in Portugal: The Influence of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative

Background Early breastfeeding practices are important determinants of later breastfeeding behaviors and can be influenced by multiple factors. Despite the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative reported positive influence on breastfeeding initiation, its influence on the association between maternal country of birth and first day in-hospital breastfeeding has not been examined. Research aims To determine (1) if association between maternal country of birth and first day in-hospital exclusive breastfeeding exists in Portugal and (2) if any association is affected by giving birth in a Baby-Friendly Hospital. Methods Data were drawn from baMBINO—a longitudinal, 2017–2019 nationwide study designed to assess the perinatal health and healthcare experiences of migrant and native Portuguese women. Data from participants (N = 5,340) were collected during their hospital stay from 32 maternity units. Missing data were handled through multiple imputation. After stratifying by Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative accreditation, a multivariate logistic regression was performed. Results First day in-hospital exclusive breastfeeding rates were high among both migrant and native participants (89.2% vs. 87.4%). Migrants were more likely to exclusively breastfeed when compared to natives (OR = 1.19, 95% CI [1.00, 1.41]). In non-Baby-Friendly Hospitals, a positive association was found between participants from Eastern European countries (aOR = 2.46, 95% CI [1.27, 4.78]) and first day in-hospital exclusive breastfeeding. In accredited hospitals, maternal country of birth did not influence exclusive breastfeeding during the first 24 hr. Conclusions The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative attenuates differences between migrant and native participants, promoting optimal breastfeeding practices among natives.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study is funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization, and by national funds of FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, under the scope of the project “Perinatal Health in Migrants: Barriers, Incentives and Outcomes” (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016874; PTDC/DTPSAP/6384/2014), the Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia - Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (EPIUnit) (info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB/04750/2020/PT), the PhD grant PD/BD/128082/2016 (CL) co-funded by the FCT and Human Potential Operating Program of the European Social Fund (POPH/FSE Program) and the contract DL57/2016/CP1336/CT0001 (CF)

Diffusion behavior of water confined in deformed carbon nanotubes

We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the diffusion of water inside deformed carbon nanotubes, with different degrees of eccentricity at 300K. We found a water structural transition between tubular-like to single-file for the (7,7) nanotubes associated with a change from a high to low mobility regimes. The water which in the undeformed (9,9) nanotubes is frozen, becomes liquid for the distortion above a certain threshold. These water diffusion enhancement (suppresion) is related to a reduction (increase) in the number of hydrogen bonds. This suggests that the shape of the nanotube is a particularly important ingredient when considering the dynamical and structural properties of confined water.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure

Testing the SUSY-QCD Yukawa coupling in a combined LHC/ILC analysis

In order to establish supersymmetry (SUSY) at future colliders, the identity of gauge couplings and the corresponding Yukawa couplings between gauginos, sfermions and fermions needs to be verified. Here a first phenomenological study for determining the Yukawa coupling of the SUSY-QCD sector is presented, using a method which combines information from LHC and ILC.Comment: 5pp, slightly expanded version of contributions to the Proc. of the Linear Collider Workshop (LCWS 06), Bangalore, India, 9-13 March 2006, and the Proc. of the 14th International Conference on Supersymmetry and the Unification of Fundamental Interactions (SUSY 06), Irvine, California, USA, 12-17 June 200

Panorama of the aquaculture expansion of aquaculture and the fish consumption in Brazil.

The global fish production and consumption has been growing over the past decades, and this increase is due to an improved perception of the nutritional and healthful characteristics of this protein source. To meet theses many different requirements in growing, or already established, markets, in a global scale, aquaculture increasingly expands, with its benefits of standardization, supply of maintenance throughout the year and better sanitary control

The compound Poisson limit ruling periodic extreme behaviour of non-uniformly hyperbolic dynamics

We prove that the distributional limit of the normalised number of returns to small neighbourhoods of periodic points of non-uniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems is compound Poisson. The returns to small balls around a fixed point in the phase space correspond to the occurrence of rare events, or exceedances of high thresholds, so that there is a connection between the laws of Return Times Statistics and Extreme Value Laws. The fact that the fixed point in the phase space is a repelling periodic point implies that there is a tendency for the exceedances to appear in clusters whose average sizes is given by the Extremal Index, which depends on the expansion of the system at the periodic point. We recall that for generic points, the exceedances, in the limit, are singular and occur at Poisson times. However, around periodic points, the picture is different: the respective point processes of exceedances converge to a compound Poisson process, so instead of single exceedances, we have entire clusters of exceedances occurring at Poisson times with a geometric distribution ruling its multiplicity. The systems to which our results apply include: general piecewise expanding maps of the interval (Rychlik maps), maps with indifferent fixed points (Manneville-Pomeau maps) and Benedicks-Carleson quadratic maps.Comment: To appear in Communications in Mathematical Physic

Determining Heavy Mass Parameters in Supersymmetric SO(10) Models

Extrapolations of soft scalar mass parameters in supersymmetric theories can be used to explore elements of the physics scenario near the grand unification scale. We investigate the potential of this method in the lepton sector of SO(10) which incorporates right-handed neutrino superfields. The method is exemplified in two models by exploring limits on the precision that can be expected from coherent LHC and e+e- collider analyses in the reconstruction of the fundamental scalar mass parameters at the unification scale and of the D-terms related to the breaking of grand unification symmetries. In addition, the mass of the third-generation right-handed neutrino can be estimated in seesaw scenarios. Even though the models are simplified and not intended to account for all aspects of a final comprehensive SO(10) theory, they provide nevertheless a valid base for identifying essential elements that can be inferred on the fundamental high-scale theory from high-energy experiments.Comment: 26 pp LaTeX; version published in Phys. Rev.